Yay! We are finally at the proposal part of this story! Thanks for sticking with me for those of you who had any interest in reading our whole story. It has been really fun to write and I am so glad I took the time to write it while I still remember it all. This story will probably be pretty long because I want to include all the fun details!
So, you will need to know what went on the couple weeks prior to the engagement. About 2 months ago I showed him exactly the kind of ring I wanted. I even cut and pasted pictures from the internet onto a document and emailed it to him. I wanted to make the ring shopping process as easy as possible for him (and I was kind of in love with this certain style of ring).
In the month leading up to the engagement he started making comments that led me to believe we wouldn't be able to get engaged as soon as I was hoping. He said he was still saving money for the ring. He also said he wanted to talk to my parents in person before he proposed. The earliest possible time for him to do that would be Thanksgiving when he was coming home with me. Therefore, I was not expecting a proposal any time before Thanksgiving. My hope was for it to just be before Christmas.
On the Monday or Tuesday of the week he proposed (which was a Saturday) he said something like "I'm not sure what kind of ring you want. I don't really know how to pick one out." Well, this kind of freaked me out because I thought that by then surely he had started the process of looking at rings. Now he was telling me he hadn't even started that. Part of me wondered if he was just trying to trick me, but the other part (the much bigger part) secretly got mad that he wasn't taking this seriously. I gave him a little lecture about how you can't just buy a ring overnight and how he should have started looking already. (I feel so foolish now thinking about that :). I wasn't really angry...I was just a little disappointed.
Well fast forward to Saturday. We had been planning to go skiing for opening weekend at Copper Mountain. My roommate Elizabeth was going to come with us. I woke up that morning to find a note in the kitchen that said she was just going to hang out with her boyfriend for the day instead of going skiing with us. Ok. No big deal I think. I didn't even begin to question why she changed her mind. I got all my ski stuff together and Philip and I headed to the mountains.
We knew there wouldn't be many runs open because they hadn't gotten too much snow. I led the first run and on the second I asked him if he wanted to take the lead. He said "No. I like to be behind you because I like to watch you ski." I'm thinking Oh he thinks I am a really good skier and loves to watch me! How cute! I wonder if he just wants me to lead because he is afraid I'll see him fall if he is in the lead. Thinking back on that now is hilarious because Philip is an excellent skier and hardly ever falls. Well, I take the lead on the second run and ski all the way down without stopping. I wait for him at the bottom for about 4 or 5 minutes until he finally appears. He told me he had a little fall and that is why he was so far behind me. Once again, I'm thinking Oh he fell. That is why he wanted me to be first. Wow maybe I am a better skier than him after all. I can't believe he seems to have so little confidence in his skiing ability. He is such a good skier normally. Maybe because it is his first time of the season he is just a little shaky. Again, absolutely absurd to think that because he is such a great skier.
Well we decided to do one more run. He said he needed to go to the bathroom so I waited on him while he did that. We got on the ski lift and on our way up he suggest stopping at the top to take a picture. I was going to suggest that anyway, so I said it was a great idea. He said he had a great place in mind. We got to the top and took off our skis and walked a short distance to a wooden pavilion where they do church services on Sundays and weddings in the summer. It was the perfect spot for a picture. While he was getting the camera set up to use the timer setting, I walked over to the railing where we were going to stand. He starts walking toward me sort of slowly. I'm thinking Gosh you better hurry up because the camera is on a timer. Why are you walking so slow?
Well before I could even finish that thought he was down on one knee in front of me. At this point I was in complete shock because it was the last thing I expected. I'm thinking This can't be it because he hasn't talked to my parents yet. Oh my gosh did he secretly go see them without me knowing? Oh I think this is a joke. Maybe he thought it would be funny to trick me. He hasn't even started looking at rings yet! At the same time I am thinking all of this he is saying beautiful and romantic things to me that I can't really remember because I was freaking out inside my head. When he pulled the ring out of his pocket I finally realized that it was real and definitely was not a joke. He put the ring on my finger and asked me to marry him and I said yes!
I spent the next 15 minutes questioning him on every little detail. I was so surprised that he had surprised me! I wanted to know everything about how he got the ring and how he planned it all. Turns out that he had not fallen earlier. He had stopped to ask a ski patrol person if it would be ok if we took a picture at this pavilion (the area around it was kind of roped off). He also did not go to the bathroom when he said he needed to. He was calling a photographer he had arranged to be there to take pictures of the proposal. Unfortunately he could not reach the photographer that morning for some reason.
Turns out he had started ring shopping 3 or 4 weeks prior to that day. He had my ring custom made to be exactly what I wanted! Here is a picture of the ring!
He got the center diamond from a man I've nannied for for the past year and a half. He used to be in the diamond business and was able to get a great deal on this diamond for Philip. The halo of diamonds around it actually used to be an earring. They took out the four small diamonds that was in the middle of the earring and put the big one in! Philip said we can have the jeweler make the other earring into a matching necklace for me. I love that!
We spent the next couple hours calling our family and close friends to share the big news! Turns out that Philip had decided to talk to my parents over the phone instead of in person. He knew he had a much better chance of surprising me if he could propose before Thanksgiving. He talked to them the Tuesday prior to the proposal. We went to Dillon and took some pictures and went to lunch.
We went straight from the mountians to the jeweler because the ring was much to big and it needed to be resized. The ladies who had helped him design it were so excited to see it on my hand. I held out my hand to show them it was too big and the lady kindly said, "Well lets put the ring on your left hand." Philip had put it on the wrong hand and I had never even noticed! I was so embarrased, but the ladies were so kind. They resized the ring and I had it back a few hours later!
We went to Chatfield Gardens after that to just walk around and take some pictures. Here are some of them. We did the best we could without actually having a photographer there!
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